History
The birth of the world's first hybrid tea is generally accepted to have been 'La France' in 1867. It was raised by Jean-Baptiste Guillot, a French nurseryman. He did it by hybridising a tea rose, supposedly 'Madame Bravy,' with a hybrid perpetual, supposedly 'Madame Victor Verdier', hence 'hybrid tea.'
Other early cultivars were 'Lady Mary Fitzwilliam' (Bennett 1883), 'Souvenir of Wootton' (John Cook 1888) and 'Mme. Caroline Testout', introduced by Pernet-Ducher in 1890.
Hybrid tea roses did not become popular until the beginning of the 20th century, when Pernet-Ducher in Lyons, France, bred the cultivar 'Soleil d'Or' (1900).
But the cultivar that made hybrid teas the most popular class of garden rose of the 20th century was the rose Peace ('Madame A. Meilland'), introduced by Francis Meilland at the end of World War II and one of the most popular rose cultivars ever.
Most hybrid tea cultivars are not fully hardy in continental areas with very cold winters (below -25 °C). This, combined with their tendency to be stiffly upright, sparsely foliaged and often not resistant to diseases, has led to a decline in hybrid tea popularity among gardeners and landscapers in favor of lower-maintenance "landscape" roses. The hybrid tea remains the standard rose of the floral industry, however, and is still favored in small gardens in formal situations.
Read more about this topic: Hybrid Tea
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